by Amy Cross
"I think we'll be okay," Amanda replied with a smile as she stopped by the large wooden door. "If a mountain lion comes for you, Mike, I'll fight it off. Trust me, I'm tougher than I look." Reaching out, she took hold of a large, thick rope and gave it a pull. Sure enough, from deep within the castle, there was the sound of a bell ringing.
"Seriously?" Mike asked. "A bell?"
"I can't believe it still works," Amanda said with a fascinated smile. "I guess that's what you get with good craftsmanship." With that, she pushed the door, and found that it was unlocked. "Help me," she said, and with Mike's assistance she was able to push the door all the way open to reveal the gloomy interior of the building. A large chamber decorated with dusty old paintings, it was like something from a horror movie, but it appeared that the entire place had been abandoned with all its furniture and fittings left intact. Dust floated through the air, picked out by beams of light that shone through the windows.
"It's like stepping back in time," Amanda said, waving dust away from her face as she stepped forward.
"And you don't think -" Mike started to say, before there was a sudden, loud flapping sound nearby. To his horror, he turned and saw several bats flying straight down toward him, and he was barely able to duck in time before the creatures swooped past and headed out the door.
"You've got to be kidding me!" he shouted, as Amanda laughed.
"Your expression!" she said, clearly finding the whole thing to be highly amusing. "God, Mike, you've gone totally pale."
"What are we gonna find next?" he replied. "Christopher fucking Lee walking down the stairs? This place is like some kind of movie set. It's as if someone dressed it up specifically to be a spooky old castle."
"Bats are common in this part of the world," Amanda explained. "A place like this would be a perfect location for a nest. There are bound to be more of them around, but they won't attack. The myth of the angry, blood-sucking bat is just that. A myth."
"I'd rather not get rabies while we're out here," Mike replied ruefully.
"Look at the chandelier," Amanda said, pointing up at a huge, magnificent creation that hung above them. "That's a hell of a lot of gold, and what's the white stuff? Bone?" Grinning, she turned to him. "Do you think these people were that crazy? A chandelier made with real human bones? Can you imagine the kind of people who'd want to have something like this in their home?"
"It's hard to believe no-one came and ransacked the place after the family died off," Mike replied.
"Everyone was too scared," Amanda said, walking over to a large table and running a finger through the dust. "It must be hundreds of years since anyone even dared to come near the castle. The Le Compte's were part of a feudal system, so villagers were forced to come up and deliver tithes and other offerings, but apart from that they kept well clear of the place. The Le Comptes ruled by fear, and all these years later, even though the family has disappeared, the fear remains. They just -"
Turning suddenly, she stared back at the open door.
"What?" Mike asked. He waited for a reply, but Amanda seemed to be almost frozen in place, as if she expected someone to appear. "Amanda?" Mike continued. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing," she replied, clearly a little shaken. "I just... I guess it was more bats, that's all."
"So how did they die out?" Mike asked, determined not to let her see that he was getting spooked by the place. "If this family was so powerful, how come their castle has been deserted for so long?"
"I guess nothing lasts forever," Amanda replied, with a hint of sadness in her voice. "Even the greatest of families has to fall eventually. The bloodline gets polluted, successive generations make costly mistakes... Whatever happened, it must have been quite sudden. Look at this place. If it wasn't for all the dust, you could be forgiven for thinking that someone still lives here. It's fabulous."
"That's not quite the word I'd use," Mike said as he walked over to the bottom of the large staircase that wound up into the heights of the building. "It's definitely huge, though. Where the hell do we begin? You'd need a full team to catalog this place. Even then, it'd take weeks."
"We'll split up."
"Are you serious?" he replied, turning to her.
"You've got your phone, haven't you?" she said with a smile. "What's wrong? Don't tell me you're scared. It's just an old, empty castle. There's no-one here. Just don't go into any areas that are too dark. You never know if there's a loose floor, or a steep drop. You've got your torch with you, right? I mean, the only actual danger is that you might accidentally walk into a door or something."
"Yeah," he said, trying to quickly come up with a reasonable excuse for them to stick together, "but..." He paused for a moment, aware that Amanda could see right through him. "Fine," he said eventually, trying to sound confident. "You know what? Fuck it. We'll split up. You want to meet back here in, say, two hours? If we survive, I mean."
"Sounds like a plan," Amanda replied. "But remember, if you get scared and you want to hold someone's hand -"
"I'll be fine," Mike said quickly, determined to prove her wrong. She was so certain that he'd got all caught up in the superstitious talk about the castle, it was as if she was starting to see him as some kind of amusing distraction. A child, even. "I'll take this direction," he continued, indicating a huge arched doorway that led through to what appeared to be some kind of hall. "I'll meet you right back here in two hours, and then we can work out where to go from there."
"Be careful," Amanda said, turning and making her way up the stairs. "You never know. I might be wrong. The place might be filled with vampires and monsters. If you find any coffins festooned with garlic, you probably shouldn't try to open them. I don't want to find your bloodless corpse when I get back."
Smiling, Mike watched as she headed up to the landing and disappeared into one of the upstairs room. Turning to look over at the archway, he realized he needed to just get on with things and not let his fears take over. His rational mind was fully aware that there was no such thing as vampires, so he simply needed to make sure that it was this part of his mind that took charge right now. He had to focus on the reality: the castle was a huge, empty building that was home to nothing more than a few bats and maybe some other vermin. Taking a deep breath, he made his way through to the next room.
Three
Walking through what appeared to be some kind of great hall, Mike found himself lost in a daze. Everything about this castle seemed larger than life, to the extent that he found it hard to believe that such a place truly existed. He kept expecting the building place to suddenly pop out of existence, leaving him standing on a rocky outcrop. It wasn't just that he found it hard to believe this castle could be tucked away in this corner of Bulgaria; it was that he found it hard to believe that such a building could exist anywhere in the world. It was just too grand, too dark and too melodramatic to comprehend, as if it had emerged fully-formed from some old Gothic fairytale.
This hall, for example, was at least a hundred meters long, and the ceiling was just as high. A long table ran the length of the room, with chairs arranged on either side, and another huge chandelier hung high above, secured to the vaulted roof by a series of thick chains. Arranged around the edge of the room, a set of dark statues watched proceedings. Wandering closer, Mike saw that each of the statues was fashioned in the likeness of a man, and while some of them held swords and other weapons in their hands, others wore robes and seemed to be unarmed. It was hard not to assume that these were members of the Le Compte family, arranged after death so that they could observe the lives of their ancestors.
"Sorry to disturb," Mike muttered as he walked along the row, briefly admiring each statue in turn. Given the nature of the castle, he couldn't help thinking that the statues might suddenly come to life. It was certainly the kind of place where such horrors might seem a little more possible, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't stop wondering if this castle might exist in some world that was entirely separate from everywhe
re else. Was it not possible, he thought, that the laws of nature could be a little different in this dark, undisturbed pocket of reality?
"You must have seen some things," he whispered, staring into the face of one of the statues. "If you could talk, huh?"
Feeling overwhelmed by all the opulence, and not really sure where to begin, he made his way through to the next room, which appeared to be some kind of large conservatory. Sofas were arranged around the edges of the room, and there was a piano in the far corner. One of the walls was decorated with a huge metal shield, which showed a range of war scenes. Just as the exterior of the castle was imposing, so too was the interior. It seemed that those who braved the road up to this place were to be given no relief once they made their way through the door. Everything about the castle seemed to have been designed to emphasize the savagery of the Le Compte family.
Hearing a noise high above, Mike looked up and realized that there were footsteps in a room directly over the hall. Reminding himself that it was probably just Amanda, he walked over to the piano and sat down. It was hard to imagine the barbaric Le Comptes gathering for an evening of music, and Mike couldn't help but wonder whether the family was filled with grotesque monsters. He thought of the whole room being filled with revelers, engaging in some kind of Bacchanalian pageant, probably slaughtering peasants in the process. Shuddering at the thought of all the blood that must have been spilled in the castle, he lifted the piano's lid and looked down at the keys, before finally playing a few notes.
As if disturbed by the noise, a solitary bat detached itself from the nearby wall and swooped low across the hall before disappearing into the next room.
For the next few minutes, Mike sat and played a couple of simple songs, just a few compositions that he remembered from his childhood. Eventually, however, he paused as he realized how unlikely it was that the piano could remain in tune after so many years. Playing a few more notes, he was certain that the instrument was in perfect condition, which seemed hard to believe if it had been left alone for so many hundreds of years. Standing up and stepping away from the piano, he couldn't shake the feeling that perhaps Amanda was wrong and that someone, at some point, had spent some time up in this place. After all, a piano couldn't keep itself in tune, and the passing years would have taken a toll on the strings even if no-one had touched the instrument.
"Musical bats," he muttered wryly, forcing himself to stay calm. "It's the only explanation."
Above, more footsteps moved across an upstairs room. Again, Mike told himself that it must just be Amanda. There was simply no way that anyone or anything else could be living in such a desolate place.
Four
The floorboards creaked as Amanda made her way cautiously across the dimly-lit room. She was high up in the castle, in a large stone room that was dominated by a four-poster bed over by the far wall. Far from looking abandoned, the bed seemed to have been used recently, with the sheets pulled aside and no layer of dust to be seen. Making her way slowly across the room, Amanda paused for a moment by the bed and then carefully set the sheets straight until the bed was more or less tidy. Probably best not to let Mike see such a thing, she figured; he'd just get even more paranoid.
Reaching her hand under the bed-sheets, Amanda found that there was no warmth. Clearly no-one had been in the bed recently.
Hearing a noise nearby, she turned and stared into the darkness. Her heart was racing, and for a moment she was convinced that there must be someone lurking in the shadows. She took a step forward, and finally she heard the noise again; this time, however, she realized that there was a mouse scurrying along the floor. Standing completely still, she watched as the mouse made its way to a small hole just below the bed, and moments later the creature disappeared into its own little world. Figuring that the whole castle was probably riddled with mice, rats and other infestations, Amanda took one final look around the bedroom before heading back over to the door.
Glancing up at the top corner of the nearby wall, she spotted a bat roosting in the darkness. She paused for a moment and watched the creature. It seemed to be asleep, or at least it showed no sign of being disturbed by her presence. Almost as if it felt comfortable. Still, it was nothing special; just a dumb creature, eking out an existence by feeding on scraps in someone else's abandoned home.
Once she was out of the room, Amanda found herself in a narrow, tall corridor that ran along the front of the building. Flags hung above, representing various stages of the Le Compte family's past glories. With the whole castle having fallen into a state of disrepair, the flags seemed vaguely pathetic, as if they were placed there by people who were convinced that their glory could never end. Now, in the twenty-first century, the flags seemed old and faded, and the defiance of the Le Compte family simply seemed more futile than ever. Amanda smiled as she thought of the family's great men, and how distraught they would undoubtedly have become if they'd known that their name would eventually fall by the wayside of history.
Stepping over to a nearby window, Amanda looked out at the vast mountains that ran across the horizon. Those mountains had stood, unchanging, for the entire duration of the Le Compte family's history, and they'd outlasted the family's dramas. When the first Le Compte came to this land, the mountains watched over his journey, and they were still watching when the last members of the family began to die off. Amanda couldn't help but wish that there was some way to speak to those mountains, to ask them what they'd seen and to beg them to relate their story. They had undoubtedly seen a huge amount of bloodshed, and heard the screams of many men and women who had been dragged up to the castle. In fact, the calmness of the scene only served to emphasize in Amanda's mind the idea that the whole region had once been in bloody thrall to the Le Compte family and their dark ways.
No wonder, she realized, that the valley seemed so lush and fertile. So much blood must have soaked down from the castle's high vantage point, enriching the soil and nourishing new life.
Sighing, Amanda checked her watch and realized that it'd soon be time to go and find Mike. She's only brought Mike with her because she wanted some company on the trip. She'd had a hard time persuading her colleagues that a journey to Bulgaria would be necessary, but eventually she'd worn them down and made them see that the dark mystery of the Le Comptes was of essential value to her broader work on European folk legends. No-one had wanted to come with her, of course, and there was no way Andrew Marlowe could be signed out of the psychiatric hospital, but Amanda had been determined to have someone with her when she made the journey to the castle. She wanted someone to see her moment of glory, and although Mike was a dull man of limited imagination, he'd be as good a witness as any.
Witnesses, she felt, were important. The castle had stood neglected for so long. Most of the world had no idea of its existence, and the locals were too scared to make anything of the place. Even now, she imagined fearful eyes staring up from the valley, terrified that some supernatural power might be unleashed from these empty, dusty corridors. It was strange to think that the Le Comptes still had so much thrall over the region, despite the fact that they'd to all intents and purposes been gone for centuries. Fear could outlast men, though, and could perhaps even outlast the world itself.
Taking a deep breath, she reminded herself that it was definitely time to leave the window. Still, she couldn't tear herself away. Not quite yet. Her eyes were constantly scanning the horizon, looking for any sign of movement.
"Come on," she muttered under her breath. "Where are you? Come back to me."
Five
"Amanda!" Mike called out as he returned to the entrance hall. "You around? It's time to come up with an actual plan!"
Smiling, he turned and looked for some sign of her. Slowly, however, the smile faded from his lips as he realized she was nowhere to be seen. In fact, as he listened to the silence, he couldn't shake the feeling that he was completely alone.
"Amanda!" he shouted again, a little more loudly this time. "Come on, we had a
n arrangement!"
He waited.
"Amanda!"
No response.
Reaching into his pocket, he grabbed his cellphone and brought up Amanda's number. After a moment, however, he saw that he had no coverage out here in the wilderness.
"Amanda!" he shouted, convinced that she must be able to hear him, even if she was far off in another wing of the house. "Amanda! Come on, we need to talk about what to do next!" He paused for a moment. "A little professionalism wouldn't hurt either," he muttered under his breath.
After a few minutes, realizing that she wasn't coming, he decided to head upstairs to look for her. Making his way up the wide stone staircase, he suddenly felt completely defenseless, as if he'd been deposited in the middle of an alien world. He couldn't help but keep glancing over his shoulder, as if he was worried that there'd be someone or something following him. As hard as he tried, the specter of some kind of presence just wouldn't go away, and he was starting to wonder whether he could truly handle a night in this place.
"Hey!" he shouted when he got to the landing. "Amanda! Come on, where are you?"
Wandering along a corridor that ran across the front of the castle, he stopped for a moment and looked out through a large window. The landscape in this part of Bulgaria was a formidable sight, reinforcing Mike's sense of loneliness and reminding him that he was truly far from home. He'd been relying on Amanda to act as his guide and help him find his way around, but although she'd always seemed so reliable and dependable back home at the museum, out here in Bulgaria she seemed to be losing her way a little. It was as if something about the project was causing her to lose focus, and Mike didn't feel equipped to take charge of their work. He needed to get Amanda back on track, but the first part of that task was to find her, and so far she seemed to have disappeared into the bowels of the castle.